Indian company partnering to create call center jobs in United States

By DAVID SHARP
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ An Indian-based tech support company is looking to U.S. workers for help.

The company, iYogi, announced Thursday it’s partnering with a call center operator in Maine for its first technical support center in North America. The operation will create 300 jobs over the next year in Maine.

The announcement shows how technical support is coming full circle with U.S. job creation in an industry that’s better known for outsourcing of U.S. jobs over the past few decades.

The independent consumer tech company is headquartered in India but wants to be closer to U.S. customers, who account for the bulk of the company’s business, said Vishal Dhar, iYogi’s co-founder and president of marketing.

“Every company is looking at a globalized workforce. We want to be closer to the customer,” he told The Associated Press.

Argo Marketing, which operates a call center in Lewiston, will hire and employ the tech support workers. Jobs will be based at Argo locations across Maine including Pittsfield and South Portland, in addition to Lewiston; there also will be work-from-home opportunities, said Argo CEO Jason Levesque.

Working with iYogi, Argo already launched a pilot program that started with 10 workers to prove that the model of Maine workers in an “iYogi environment” will work, Levesque said.

iYogi is different from many Indian-based companies that provide technical support via telephone, computer chats or email because it works directly with consumers instead of contracting out with larger companies. The company said it currently has 3 million tech support customers, mostly in North America.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage was on hand for the jobs announcement, saying it was good to see jobs being created in Maine instead of leaving the state. “It is encouraging a company like iYogi can reverse what has typically been the trend and outsource jobs to America,” he said in a statement.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ An Indian-based tech support company is looking to U.S. workers for help.

The company, iYogi, announced Thursday it’s partnering with a call center operator in Maine for its first technical support center in North America. The operation will create 300 jobs over the next year in Maine.

The announcement shows how technical support is coming full circle with U.S. job creation in an industry that’s better known for outsourcing of U.S. jobs over the past few decades.

The independent consumer tech company is headquartered in India but wants to be closer to U.S. customers, who account for the bulk of the company’s business, said Vishal Dhar, iYogi’s co-founder and president of marketing.

“Every company is looking at a globalized workforce. We want to be closer to the customer,” he told The Associated Press.

Argo Marketing, which operates a call center in Lewiston, will hire and employ the tech support workers. Jobs will be based at Argo locations across Maine including Pittsfield and South Portland, in addition to Lewiston; there also will be work-from-home opportunities, said Argo CEO Jason Levesque.

Working with iYogi, Argo already launched a pilot program that started with 10 workers to prove that the model of Maine workers in an “iYogi environment” will work, Levesque said.

iYogi is different from many Indian-based companies that provide technical support via telephone, computer chats or email because it works directly with consumers instead of contracting out with larger companies. The company said it currently has 3 million tech support customers, mostly in North America.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage was on hand for the jobs announcement, saying it was good to see jobs being created in Maine instead of leaving the state. “It is encouraging a company like iYogi can reverse what has typically been the trend and outsource jobs to America,” he said in a statement.